Level 7
by ironcaptain4245
Summary: The world is infected. Are you next? Stevie Decker has been isolated. She's lived on her best friend's property since the Dead Plague began. When the unspeakable happens to her family, Stevie is thrust onto the front lines, where she finds old friends, though some not in the way she'd hoped. Stevie must now choose between her family and her cause, before she loses everything.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

Washington D.C. – January, 2018

"Mr. President. The outbreak has spread too far. We are on the verge of a nation-wide epidemic. We need to sound the alarm."

"How many people have been infected?"

"About 300 million people, sir."

"What? It was only 200 people three days ago. You want me to believe that it has spread to more than 96 percent of the United States population in a matter of _days_?"

"Sir, the virus is an airborne virus, to which only a few are immune. Once it starts it spreads like wildfire. We need to sound the alarm."

The Presidents eyes widen. He practically runs to the intercom, presses the button. There is a moment of silence, and the president makes the announcement that will change everything.

"This is the president speaking. As of right now, I am declaring a national state of emergency. The virus we have been attempting to contain has spread to over 96 percent of the nation. This is a Level 7. I repeat, this is a Level 7. All uninfected people report to the underground bunkers for safety briefing. Thank you."

"Sir, what about all of the citizens elsewhere? What will we do for them?"

"There's nothing we can do. The only thing we can do is hide and hope that people will survive."

CHAPTER 1

It has been three months since the president announced the undead epidemic. It's been two months and 28 days since the president was found dead. Or I should say undead. It has been 3 months since the world was actually normal.

We all saw it coming, the apocalypse. Either it was the end of the world, a world war, or zombies. I think we all knew something was going to happen. Society was getting ugly. Suicide rates went up. The Government was keeping secrets. Something was bound to happen.

No one knows how it started exactly. The virus. The virus has infected most of the world. The people it hasn't infected are Immunes. At first the virus was something contained in a lab somewhere, but then it got out and became airborne. And people turned into zombies... I don't know what the virus does to make people go nuts and turn into blood thirsty things. And the doctors that are still alive or that are still out there don't really see a point in finding out. I don't think they see a point in trying to find a cure either. Humanity has just decided to give up in the last few months.

Since the outbreak, the government has left us to fend for ourselves. The only thing they have done for us is give us small rations every month and told us, "Good luck!" Yeah, thanks for the help guys.

Fortunately, we live in a very remote area. After the outbreak, my family and I moved to a guest house on my best friend Toni's property. I've been living with my mother and two brothers in that tiny house in the woods; far away from the city where it is inhabited by the Dead.

Three days ago my little brother caught the airborne virus. We had to kill him before he killed us. No one has been the same since.

I've been the only one who can stay strong. Who can at least keep some food on the table. I loved my little brother but he's gone. And there isn't anything we can do about it.

My mom isn't too good though, she sits in her bedroom sleeps, cries, and waits for it all to get better. But unless we do something it isn't getting better. She used to be happy and alive. She used be beautiful and have brown flowing hair that most middle aged women would kill for. She used to smile so bright and you used to see a sparkle in her eyes. Not anymore.

My older brother is ten years older than me but somehow I'm the one hunting, gathering, cleaning, cooking, while he sits in his room playing video games. I don't know how he can shoot virtual zombies and be living in a literal zombie apocalypse. Maybe because he's never actually had to shoot one in the head.

My father was a good man. When we found out about the zombies he said he'd do everything to keep us alive and well. But one night he left us. One morning, about a month after the apocalypse began, we woke up and he was just gone.

No trace of him being here other than his drawer of clothes and tools and his glasses. We don't know why he left us. But I learned to move on.

The last couple of days have been hard. I've been doing all the work. I've been out cutting firewood by myself, hunting by myself, gathering. Usually my brother comes along but he hasn't come out of his room for almost 12 hours. Neither has my mother. I guess they're grieving more than I thought they would.

Toni doesn't live here anymore because her, her parents, and her boyfriend, Will, were recruited to help fight against the zombies. Not by our _wonderful_ government, but by The Sanctum, an organization that helps fight against the undead. They're safe because of a force field that hides them from view, and hides their scent as well. You can only go there unless you have special clearance, which means you have to be recruited, which they won't recruit me.

Toni was recruited about a month after the outbreak, and Will shortly after. I couldn't think of better people to join their task force. Toni was always fearless. She loved hunting, and in the first months of the apocalypse, she and Will would go hunting and get us some fresh meat, because the Feds just gives us frozen food that was _disgusting_. One day when they were hunting, Toni and Will were surrounded by a pack of zombies, and instead of freaking out, she "kept her cool" as Will said, and killed every single one of them without hesitation, right in the forehead. Well, her nickname wasn't "Annie Oakley" for nothing. She always remained optimistic. She knew that one day she would do something great, and she was _always_ the life of the party. She could be brutally honest at times, but we could use some honesty these days.

Will was a great kid. He was just like Toni. Smart, funny, and also, brutally honest. They had been together since freshman year in high school, and they haven't left each other since. They were so in love, you could tell from the way they acted around each other. They brought out the best in each other.

Today has been like any other day, I gathered blackberries off the bushes in the yard, picked some fruit off of the trees they planted, and checked my traps. Toni taught me as much as she could when she learned that she was leaving. I used to be a vegetarian, but I don't really have that option anymore. For the rest of the day I read my books that I've read a thousand times.

After I made myself a small dinner I went to my room. It was quiet as usual. But it was too quiet. Usually you hear the gun shots from my brothers' video games or the fire in the back yard crackling. Or even the wind. I opened my windows hoping to cut the silence with a breeze coming into my room. There was a breeze but, it was eerie and sad. It was humid and warm air. It wasn't comforting. And I needed some sort of comfort.

I suddenly felt tired. I put my bowl of berries and meat down. I wondered for a moment if I should close the windows, but we live in the middle of nowhere I haven't seen a zombie around here for a month or so. It was safe, right? And in the quiet I fell asleep.

Later I awoke to a ripping sound. When I looked up I saw a zombie, its coal black eyes staring right at me. It was ripping open the screen on my window. They found us.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I gasped and ran to the door. I thought shutting the door would keep it out, but his arm burst through the middle of the door without an issue.

How? They're supposed to be weak...

They aren't even supposed to be able break through a pane of glass, let alone a one-inch solid oak door.

"How the—?" was all I could say before I had to run. I ran to mother's room as fast I could.

"Mom! Mom...?" I asked as I saw her getting up off the floor, slow and shakily.

"Mom? Are you alright? There's zombies, they found...us..." I stopped. She turned around and I saw her eyes. Black and lifeless. And her facial expression changed to a disgusting, hungry look. She growled. And started towards me.

With tears in my eyes, I ran to my older brother's room, but as soon as I turned the corner he was standing there with pieces of his door in his hands. A green liquid was seeping out of his hands instead of blood. Zombies don't have blood. They all started to corner me in my living room. I had to act fast. If I didn't get out soon, I was going to die. If I could get to the front door, I could get out of there and hopefully find somewhere to hide.

I ducked underneath the legs of a zombie, and bolted to the front door, but through the window next to the door I could see them. Zombies, and hundreds of them. With nowhere left to go, I ran to my bathroom. I shut and locked the door. I start to panic, which is the last thing I need. I hear the zombies pounding on my door, or it might be my heart thundering in my chest, I'm not sure. Finally I remember the tiny window above the shower, and somehow manage to squeeze through the window, and climb a tree to get on the roof.

Zombies are now climbing the tree. What is going on? How are they capable of doing this?

_I'm out of options. I'm done. I'm going to die up here. _

Suddenly I hear the beating of helicopter blades and then there's a chopper above me, with a man in all black on a ladder, holding his hand out to me. The Sanctum. I grab his hand and he pulls me up to safety. I so much as sit down inside, and then everything goes black.


End file.
